2024 Seasonals

Early in 2022, I spent some time identifying "SheppyBrew Seasonals". I tied a specific SheppyBrew beer to every month in the year.

For whatever reason, after the year was done I shared 2022 Seasonals I had brewed during the year. I had brewed all but 3 of the "Seasonals".

I reported on the 2023 Seasonals as well, missing 4 months. Now that I've established the pattern, I feel like I have to share my brewed "Seasonals" for 2024.

I actually made it a brewing goal in 2024 to brew all my "SheppyBrew Seasonals". Around July or August, I got tired of the idea, but I had hit all the months so far, so I forced myself to finish them up.

2024 Mardi Bock

2024 Q1 SheppyBrew Stats

 It feels like I say this a lot ...

The year is flying by. Not just this year. Every year flies by. Crazy how fast it all goes.

Anyway ... here we are in April, which means that the first quarter of 2023 is done. It's time to report on the  SheppyBrew Brewing Stats for the quarter.

Remember that last year, I kept saying I would slow down brewing and end up brewing less volume than I had in 2022.

I did end up slightly down by the end of the year, but it certainly never looked like I had slowed down at all.

At the end of the first quarter last year, I had brewed 6 batches of beer and had 31 gallons.

Arctic Vortex Winter Saison

A Blonde, two Redheads, and a Brunette

I currently have 4 gorgeous SheppyBrew Beers on tap.

A Blonde. A couple of Red[heads]. A Black beer (brunette)

 

McShepardSons Irish Ale

 🍺 Introducing SheppyBrew Brewery's McShepardSons Irish Ale: A Legend in Every Sip! 🍀

Embark on a whimsical journey with our McShepardSons Irish Ale, where the enchanting collaboration between mischievous leprechauns and ingenious gnomes unfolds in every frothy drop. Nestled in the heart of the emerald hills, our brewery becomes a magical realm where folklore and flavor converge.

Legend has it that the renowned McShepardSons Irish Ale is the result of a spirited partnership between the lively leprechauns and the industrious gnomes. Under the shimmering moonlight, these mystical beings gathered at the SheppyBrew cauldron, bringing with them a trove of secret ingredients harvested from the enchanted forests and hidden meadows.

2024 McShepardSons Irish Ale (Batch 352) and Chicken

I was originally planning on brewing McShepardSons Irish Ale this past weekend, but my son had an Ultimate Tournament, and I would rather watch him play when I have the opportunity.

St. Patrick's Day is coming up, and I wanted the beer to be ready to drink by the 17th. 

So ... rather than delay the brew day, I brewed it earlier than originally planned. 

February 25th.

This is the 2nd time I've brewed this beer, and is the 4th batch of beer I've brewed this year. It is the 352nd batch of beer I've brewed all time.

If you're interested in seeing the recipe ...

McShepardSons Irish Ale

2022 SheppyBrew Seasonals

Earlier in the year, I published a blog post in which I talked about beers that could be considered  SheppyBrew Seasonals, attaching them to each month of the year.

As I was working my way through brewing over the year, I kept this list in mind. I didn't hit every month, but I brewed most of the beers close to their month this year.

McShepardSons Comparison

Remember a couple weeks ago I brewed a double batch of McShepardSons Irish Ale (Batch 308)?

Well ... I did.

In one fermentor, I pitched Voss Kveik Ale Yeast. In the other I used SafAle English Ale.

The Voss ferment finished up in a few days. The English ferment finished about a week later.

Friday after work, I decided to compare the two beers.

They are both beautiful red ales, but the colors are slightly different. The kveik ale is just a touch darker. I think this is mostly due to the Voss beer having more time to clarify. 

Groomsday Pic Pint

My friend "Joe" contacted me again a couple weeks ago, letting me know that he wanted to send me another gift to help promote a new site ... "Groomsday".

He thought I might like one of the company's laser-engraved Personalized Groomsmen Beer Glasses.

I agreed, and sent him a picture of myself so that he could send me a Laser Engraved Pic Pint.

All glasses are engraved by our amazing artist, who extracts your guys out of the pictures you send him and engraves them on the glass. This beer glass holds 15 oz, the perfect amount to enjoy.

2022 Q1 SheppyBrew Stats

We have completed Q1 of 2022, which means we can report the SheppyBrew Brewing Stats for the quarter.

Compared to Q1 of 2020 (when we brewed 7 batches for 35 gallons) and Q1 of 2021 (when we brewed 8 batches for 42 gallons of beer), the first quarter of 2022 has been pretty low.

We've only brewed 5 batches. We've only brewed 30 gallons.

Arctic Vortex Winter Saison

This puts me on pace for my 3rd highest year for volume of beer brewed, but certainly 1 quarter doesn't mean very much for projecting a total for the year.

The beers I brewed this quarter were:

• Arctic Vortex Winter Saison
• Colorado Strong IPA
• Colorado Vienna Lager
• Boo Berry American Wheat
• McShepardsons Irish Ale (double batch)

McShepardSons Irish Ale (Batch 308)

As I mentioned last week in Disappearing Beer, my Beer Inventory is very low right now.

I have a keg of Boo Berry American Wheat, and a little bit of beer in my keg of Colorado Strong IPA.

Boo Berry is mostly for my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model), and Colorado Strong will blow any time now.

So, if I want homebrew to drink in the near future, I had to brew this past weekend.

To help catch up quickly, I decided to do a 10 gallon batch.

I also decided to go with a low-ish ABV beer to help ferment faster.

Since I was doing a double batch anyway, I decided that one of the fermentors would use Kveik yeast in hopes to speed up fermentation.

As St. Patrick's Day recently occurred ... I thought I'd brew an Irish Red ... sort of a belated seasonal. 

McShepardSons Irish Ale (double batch)

Disappearing Beer

I discovered something sad on Sunday afternoon. 

I was intending to write a blog post about my two recent "Colorado" beers. Both Colorado Strong IPA and Colorado Vienna Lager feature a malt bill completely composed of malts from local Root Shoot Malting.

On Friday, I noted that Colorado Vienna Lager was

 "pretty much perfect now. Carbonation and clarity right where I want them. Yummy flavor. Beautiful color."

In other words ... this beer was ready to start drinking more than just samples. Drinking "for reals".

Muggled!

A couple weekends ago, I discovered that a couple of our geocaches had gone missing.

If you are wondering what a geocache is ... feel free to dig through this blog at Sheppy's Blog: Geocache. If you are still having trouble with the concept, check out Geocaching 101.

Anyway, I was checking up on my geocaches (as I do from time to time) in the Pence Park area. The first one I checked on was Sheppy McShepardSons (take II). It was not where it is supposed to be. To be honest, of all the geocaches that I've hidden, this is the one that I thought would be the least likely to go missing. I guess I was wrong. This did not make me happy.

More McShepardSons

Well, do you remember that I hid a new geocache? If not, see McShepardSons on Independence Mountain.

It has not been getting very many visitors. In fact, after almost 3 weeks, it had only been logged as found once on its online log. There were a couple of entries in the paper log in the cache. It seems weird to me that someone would find the cache and not sign online, but maybe that is just me.

Anyway, while hiking up to the top of Independence Mountain, I thought maybe more people would visit the cache if there were more to find on the way up.

McShepardSons on Independence Mountain

I placed what I hope will be the Sheppy Family's third geocache.

McShepardSons on Independence Mountain

It is currently submitted for review. The only thing that would prevent it from being published is any multi-stage caches that have one of the steps in the area. Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing where all those might be unless I find every multi-cache that might be anywhere close to this area. I didn't see any multi-caches particularly close, so I think my chances are pretty good.

Sheppy McShepardSons (take II), Take 2

So, remember a couple of weekends ago, my wife, kids and I tried to hide our geocache? See McShepardSons take 2 as a reminder.

Later the same day I posted the entry, I got a message from a geo-reviewer telling me that the spot we picked was too close to a physical location of a multi-step cache. I would have to move our cache. Unfortunately, those multi-caches are the reason we've had such a difficult time finding a spot up till now.

Tuesday night, I went back to Pence Park and got the container and looked around for another spot.

I found one after about a 1.3 mile hike. I placed it and re-submitted my new hiding spot.

McShepardSons take 2

So, way back in September, I reported that we had hidden a geocache. See Placing Sheppy McShepardSons take 1.

Do you know what a geocache is? If you follow this blog on a regular basis, you have probably noticed our renewed interest in geocaching (see Sheppy's Blog: Geocache), and probably have either figured it out or don't really care. If not, it is basically a global hide-and-seek game using GPS coordinates.

As it turned out, we were too close to a "Multi-Cache", and that spot got rejected. We tried a few more spots, but we kept running into the same issue ... the cache was too close to some other one that we couldn't see. Eventually, we sort of gave up trying to find a spot for the winter.

Placing Sheppy McShepardSons take 1

My boys ... especially Little Brother have been working on making a geocache to hide.

Do you know what a geocache is? If you follow this blog on a regular basis, you have probably noticed our renewed interest in geocaching (see Sheppy's Blog: Geocache), and probably have either figured it out or don't really care. If not, it is basically a global hide-and-seek game using GPS coordinates.

If you are interested in learning more, take a few minutes and check out "Geocaching in 2 Minutes" and / or  "Geocaching 101". Go ahead ... I'll wait.

So, anyway, we have been FINDING geocaches since November 2008. This is our first attempt to hide a geocache. My youngest pretty much took the lead on this one. He found the container, and convinced Mommy to empty it of its previous contents. He talked his dad into taking him to the store and buying Camo duct tape (weird that we didn't have any already ... right?). He applied the tape, found a log book, assembled the contents, and coordinated getting a little information sheet about geocaching printed out and laminated to put in the cache.